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THE DUKE 
OF GANDIA 



ALGERNON CHARLES 
SWINBURNE 




HARPER & BROTHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

MCM VIII 






LIBHARY of (»NC?h'.^SS, 
Two CopUs Kec>*Vi.<i 

APR 2 V^OQ 



COHt b/ 



LI' 



Copyright, 1908, by Harper & Brothers. 



All rights reserved. 
Published April, 1908. 



PERSONS REPRESENTED 

POPE ALEXANDER VI. 

FRANCESCO BORGIA, Duke of Gandia) 

( his sons. 
C-^SAR BORGIA, Cardinal of Valencia ) 

DON MICHELE COREGLIA, called MICHELOTTO, 

agent for Caesar Borgia. 

GIORGIO SCHIAVONE, a Tiber waterman. 

TWO ASSASSINS. 

AN OFFICER of the papal household. 

VANNOZZA CATANEI, surnamed LA ROSA, concu- 
bine to the Pope. 

LUCREZIA BORGIA, daughter to Alexander and 
Vannozza. 

Scene: ROME 
Time: June 14— July 22, 1497. 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

SCENE I 

The Vatican 
Enter CJESAR and VANNOZZA 

CiESAR 

Now, mother, though thou love my brother more. 
Am I not more thy son than he? 

VANNOZZA 

Not more* 

C^SAR 

Have I more Spaniard in me — less of thee? 
Did out Most Holiest father thrill thy womb 
[7] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

With more Italian passion than brotjght forth 
Me? 

VANNOZZA 

Child, thine elder never was as thoti — 
Spake never thus. 

C^SAR 

I doubt it not. But I, 
Mother, am not mine elder. He desires 
And he enjoys the life God gives him — God, 
The Pope our father, and thy sacred self, 
Mother beloved and hallowed. I desire 
More. 

VANNOZZA 

Thou wast ever sleepless as the wind- 
A child anhungered for thy time to be 
[8] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Man. See thy purple about thee* Art thow not 
Cardinal? 

CMSAR 

Ay; my father's eminence 
Set so the stamp on mine, I will not die 
Cardinal. 

VANNOZZA 

Csesar, wilt thou cleave my heart? 
Have I not loved thee? 



C^SAR 

Ay, fair mother — ay. 
Thoa hast loved my father likewise. Dost thoti love 
Gialia — the sweet Farnese — called the Fair 
In all the Roman streets that call thee Rose? 
And that bright babe Giovanni, whom otir sire, 
[9] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Thy holy lord and hers, hath stamped at birth 
As duke of Nepi? 

VANNOZZA 

When thy sire begat 
Thee, sinftil thotigh he ever was — fierce, fell, 
Spaniard — I fear me, Jesus for his sins 
Bade Satan pass into him. 

CiESAR 

And fill thee full. 
Sweet sinless mother. Fear it not. Tho« hast 
Children more loved of him and thee than me — 
Ottr bright Francesco, born to smile and sway. 
And her whose face makes pale the s«n in heaven. 
Whose eyes outlaugh the splendor of the sea, 
Whose hair has all noon's wonders in its weft. 
Whose mouth is God's and Italy's one rose, 

Lticrezia. 

[10] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



VANNOZZA 

Dost thoti love them then? My child, 
How should not I then love thee? 

C^SAR 

God alone 
Knows, "Was not God — the God of love, who bade 
His son be man because he hated man. 
And saw him scourged and hanging, and at last 
Forgave the sin wherewith he had stamped us, seeing 
So fair a full atonement — was not God 
Bridesman when Christ's crowned vicar took to bride 
My mother? 

VANNOZZA 

Speak not thou to me of God, 
I have sinned, I have sinned — I would I had died a 

nun. 
Cloistered! 

[H] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



C-S:SAR 

There too my sire had f ottnd thee. Priests 
Make way where warriors dare not — save when war 
Sets wide the floodgates of the weirs of hell. 
And what hast thou to do with sin? Hath he 
Whose sin was thine not given thee there and then 
God's actual absolution? Mary lived 
God's virgin, and God's mother: mine art thou. 
Who am Christlike even as thou art virginal. 
And if thou love me or love me not God knows, 
And God, who made me and my sire and thee. 
May take the charge upon him. I am I. 
Somewhat I think to do before my day 
Pass from me. Did I love thee not at all, 
I would not bid thee know it. 

VANNOZZA 

Alas, my son! 
[12] 



THE DUK^E OF GANDIA 
C^SAR 

AlaSt my mother, soands no sense for men — 
Rings but reverberate folly, whence resounds 
Retttming latighten Weep or smile on me. 
Thy sunshine or thy rainbow softens not 
The mortal earth wherein thou hast dad me. Nay, 
Bttt rather would I see thee smile than weep. 
Mother. Thou art lovelier, smiling. 

VANNOZZA 

What is this 
Thou hast at heart to do? God*s judgment hangs 
Above us. I that girdled thee in me 
As Mary girdled Jesus yet unborn 
— ^Thou dost believe it? A creedless heretic 
Thou are not? 

C^SAR 

I? God's vicar's child? 
[13] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

VANNOZZA 

Be God 
Praised! I, then, I, thy mothert bid thee, pray. 
Pray thee btit say what hungers in thy heart. 
And whither tho« wouldst hurl the strenuous life 
That works within thee, 

C^SAR 

Whither? Am not I 
Hinge of the gate that opens heaven — that bids 
God open when my sire thrusts in the key — 
Cardinal? Canst thou dream I had rather be 
Duke? 

Enter FRANCESCO 

FRANCESCO 

"Wilt thou take mine office, Cassar mine? 
I heard thy laugh deride it. Mother, whence 
[14] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Comes that sweet gift of grace from dawn to dawn 
That daily shows thee sweeter? 



C^SAR 

Knowest thoti none 
Lovelier? 

VANNOZZA 

My Caesar finds me not so fain 
ThotJ art over fond, Francesco. 

C^SAR 

Nay, no whit. 
Our heavenly father on earth adores no less 
Oar mother than ottr sister: and I hold 
His heart and eye, his spirit and his sense, 
Infallible. 

[J5] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 
Enters the POPE 

ALEXANDER 

Jest not with God. I heard 
A holy word, a hallowing epithet. 
Cardinal Caesar, trip across thy tongue 
Lightly. 

C^SAR 

Most holiest father, I desire 
Paternal absolution — when thy laugh 
Has waned from lip and eyelid. 

ALEXANDER 

Take it now. 
And Christ preserve thee, Caesar, as thou art. 
To serve him as I serve him. Rose of mine. 
My rose of roses, whence has fallen this dew 
That dims the sweetest eyes love ever lit 
With light that mocks the morning? 
[16] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



VANNOZZA 

Nay, my lord, 
I know not — nay, I knew not if I wept. 



ALEXANDER 

0«r sons and Christ's and Peter's whom we praise. 
Are they — are these — fallen out? 



FRANCESCO 

Not I with him. 
Nor he, I think, with me. 

C^SAR 

Forbid it, God! 
The God that set thee where thoti art, and there 
Sustains thee, bids the love he kindles bind 
Brother to brother. 

[17] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 
ALEXANDER 

God or no God, man 
Must live and let man live — while one man's life 
Galls not another's. Fools and fiends are men 
Who play the fiend that is not* Why shottldst thoti. 
Girt with the girdle of the Church, and given 
Power to preside on spirit and flesh — or thoti, 
Qothed with the glad world's glory — priest or prince. 
Turn on thy brother an evil eye, or deem 
Your father God hath dealt his doom amiss 
Toward either or toward any? Hath not Rome, 
Hath not the Lord Christ's kingdom, where his will 
Is done on earth, enough of all that man 
Tliirsts, hungers, lusts for — pleasure, pride, and 

power — 
To sate you and to share between you? Whence 
Should she, the godless heathen's goddess once. 
Discord, heave up her hissing head again 
Between love's Christian children — love's? Hath God 
Cut short the thrill that glorifies the flesh, 
[J8] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Chilled the sharp rapturous pang that burns the 

blood. 
Because an hundred even as twain at once 
Partake it? Boys, my boys, be wise, and rest, 
"Whatever fire take hold upon your flesh, 
"Whatever dream set all your life on fire. 
Friends. 

C^SAR 
Friends? Our father on earth, thy will be done. 

FRANCESCO 
Christ's body, Caesar! dost thou mock? 

CiESAR 

Not I. 
Hast thou fallen out with me, then, that thy tongue 
Disclaims its lingering utterance? 
[19] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 
ALEXANDER 

Now, by nought. 
As nought abides to swear by, folly seen 
So plain and heard so lotxd might wellnigh make 
Wise men believe in even the devil and God. 
"What ails you? "Whence comes lightning in yotir 

eyes, 
"With hissing hints of thunder on your lips? 
Fools! and the fools I thought to make for men 
Gods. Is it love or hate divides you — turns 
Tooth, fang, or claw, when time provides them prey, 
To nip, rip, rend each other? 

CESAR 

Hate or love, 
Francesco? 

FRANCESCO 

"Why, I hate thee not — thou knowest 
I hate thee not, my Cassar. 
[20] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

CiESAR 

I believe 
Thoa dost not hate or love or envy me; 
Even as I know, and knowing believe, we all — 
Our father, thotj and I — triune in heart — 
Hold loveliest of all living things to love 
This. 

Enter LUCREZIA 
LUCREZIA 

Mother! "What do tears and thoa for once 
Together? Rain in sunshine? 

VANNOZZA 

Ask thy sire. 
Am I not now the moon? Saint Anna bore 
Saint Mary Virgin — did not God prefer 
The child, and thrust behind with scarce a smile 
The mother? 

[21] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Thrust not out thy thorns at Heaven, 
Rose* 

LUCREZIA 
Bat what ailed her? And she will not say. 

C^SAR 

Sister, I sinned — sin must be mine. A word 
Fell out askance between us, and she wept 
Because our father chid us. 

LUCREZIA 

How should strife 
Find here a tongue to hiss with? Are not we. 
Brothers and sire and sister, sealed of God 
Lovers — made one in love? 
[22] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



ALEXANDER 

Deride not God, 
Lacrezia. 

LUCREZIA 
Father, dost thou fear him, then? 

ALEXANDER 
I say not and I know not if I fear* 

FRANCESCO 

Thotf canst not. Father, were he terrible, 
How long wouldst thou live — thoa, his mask on 
earth? 

ALEXANDER 

Boy, art thoti all a child? What knew they more. 
The men that loved and feared and died for God, 
[23] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Than I and thou who know him not? Wc know 
This life is otirs, and sweet, if shame and fear 
Make us not less than man: and less were they 
Who crawled and writhed and cowered and called on 

God. 
To save them from him. Here I stand as he, 
God, or God's very figure wrought in flesh. 
More godlike than was Jesus* Dare I fear 
Whipping and hanging? Thou, my cardinal. 
Canst think not to be scourged and crucified — 
Ha? 

C^SAR 

Nay: there lurks no God in me. And thou. 
Father, dost thou fear? 

ALEXANDER 

I? Nought less than God» 
But if we take him lightly on our lips 
[24] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Too light his name will sound in all men's ears 
Till earth and air, when man says God, respond 
Laughter. Forbear him. 

C^SAR 

"Wisdom lives in thee. 
And cries not out along the streets as when 
None of God's folk that heard regarded her. 
As all that hear thy word regard — or die. 
Being not outside God's eyeshot. Dost thotj sleep 
Here in his special keeping — here — to-night. 
Brother? 

FRANCESCO 
What bids thee care to know? 

C^SAR 

They say 

These holy streets of Heaven's most holiest choice 
[25] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Lie dangerous now in darkness if a man 
"Walk not on holiest errands. Thotf, they say, 
Wert scarce a Christlike sacrifice if slain. 
Too many dead flow down the Tiber's flow 
Nightly. They say it. 



FRANCESCO 

I never called thee yet 
FooL 

C^SAR 

Ah, my lord and brother, didst thou now, 
Were this not thankless? God — our father's God — 
Guide thee! [Exit FRANCESCO. 

He goes, and thanks me not. Our sire. 
What says the God that lives upon thy lips 
And withers in thy silence? 
[26] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

LUCREZIA 

Vex him not, 
Ccesar. Thou seest he is weary* 



ALEXANDER 

Yea. Come ye 
With me. Bethink thee, Caesar. Vex me not. 
[Exeunt ALEXANDER, VANNOZZA, and LUCREZIA. 

C^SAR 

Thott wilt not hid me this, I think, again. 
Father. 

Enter MiCHELOTTO 

Tho« art swift of speed at need. I bade thee 
Abide my hiddmg, 

[27] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

MICHELOTTO 

Till my lord were left 
Alone* 

C^SAR 
Thou knewest it? 



MICHELOTTO 

Where my lord may be 
And what beseems his thrall to know of him 
I were not worthy, knew I not, to know. 



CiESAR 

I do not ask thee where my brother sleeps. 
And where to-morrow sees him yet asleep — 
[28] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 
MICHELOTTO 
Ask of the fishers' nets on Tiber, 

C-ffilSAR 

Nay— 
Not I bat Rome shall ask it. Pass in peace. 
The benediction of my sire be thine. [ExeanL 



SCENE II 

A nsLirom) street opening on the Tiber 

Enter MiCHELOTTO and ASSASSINS 

MICHELOTTO 
Yc know the lordlier harlot's house — there? 

FIRST ASSASSIN 

Ay, 

Sarely. 

MICHELOTTO 

The first whose foot comes forth is he. 
[31] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

SECOND ASSASSIN 
How know we this? 

MICHELOTTO 

I know it. Ye need but slay. 
[ExtL 

Enter FRANCESCO 

FRANCESCO {singing) 

Love and night are life and light; 

Sleep and wine and song 
Speed and slay the halting day 

Ere it live too long. 

FIRST ASSASSIN 

That shalt not thou. Sing, whosoever thou be, 
Thy next of songs to Satan. 

[They stah him* 
[32] 



THE DU KE OF GANDIA 
FRANCESCO 

Dogs! Ye dare? 
God! Pity me! God! [Dies. 



SECOND ASSASSIN 

God receive his soal! 
This was a Christian: many a man I have slain 
Died v/ith all hell between his lips* 

FIRST ASSASSIN 

Be thine 
Dumb. Lift his feet as I the head. 

SECOND ASSASSIN 

A boy! 
And fair of face as angels. 
[33] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

FIRST ASSASSIN 

If the nets 
Snare not this fish betimes ere others feed, 
None that shall heave it airward for the strn 
To mock and mar shall say so. Bring him down. 
Tiber hath fed on choicer fare than we 
May think to feed his throat with ere we die. 

[Exeunt 'with the body. 



SCENE III 
The Vatican 

Alexander and Lucrezia 

ALEXANDER 

The day burns high, Thotf hast not seen them- 
thott? 

LUCREZIA 
My brethren, sire? Nay, not since yesternights 

ALEXANDER 

The night is newly dead. Since yestercven? 
[35] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 
LUCREZIA 

Nor then. I saw them when we parted here 
Last. 

ALEXANDER 

I believe thou liest not* Girl, the day 
Looks pale before thy glory* Brow, cheek, eye. 
Lips, throat, and bosom, thou dost overshine 
All womanhood man ever worshipped* Once 
I held thy mother fairest born of all 
That ever turned old Rome to heaven* Thou hast 

read 
Her golden Horace? 



LUCREZIA 

Else were I cast out 
From all their choir who serve the Muses* 
[36] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



ALEXANDER 

Ay. 

**Fair mother's fairer daughter/' dost thoti deem 
That praise was ever merited as by thee? 
I cannot* 

LUCREZIA 

I concern myself no whit 
If so it were or were not. 



ALEXANDER 

Thott dost well. 
Thou hast not seen, thou sayest, Francesco? 

LUCREZIA 

Nay- 
Give me some reliquary to swear it on — 
Some rosary — crucifix or amulet, 
Sorcerous or sacred. 

[37] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Never twins were born 
More like than thott and he — nor lovelier: yet 
No twins were ye. 

LUCREZIA 

What ails thy Holiness? 

ALEXANDER 

I am ill at ease: my heart is sick* Last night 
No revel here was held, and yet the day 
Strikes heavier on me wearier, body and soul. 
Than though we had rioted out with raging mirth 
The lifelong length of darkness. 

LUCREZIA 

Evil hours 
Fret some whiles all folk living; none sees why: 
No child sleeps always all night long, 
[38] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Wast thotf 
"Wakeful? No trouble cl«ng aboat thee? Nought 
Made the air of night heavier with presage felt 
As joy feels fear and withers? I am not 
Afraid: methinks I am very fear itself. 

Enter an Officer of the household 

OFFICER 
His Holiness be gracious toward me. 

ALEXANDER 

Speak. 
Thy face is death's: let death upon thy lips 
Live. 

OFFICER 

Sire, the humblest fiireling knave in Rome — 
A waterman that plies his craft all night — 
Craves audience even of thee. 
[39] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

A Roman? 

OFFICER 

Nay» 
Some oatlandcr — some Greek — they call the knave 
George the Slavonian. 

ALEXANDER 
They? 

OFFICER 

The fisherfolk 
On Tiber* 

ALEXANDER 

Bid him in: bid God himself 
Come in with doom upon me. [Exit Officer* 

Hear'st thou, child — 
Daughter? 

[40] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

LUCREZIA 
What horror hangs on thee? 



ALEXANDER 

And thoa shalt know as I know. 

Enter GIORGIO SCHIAVONE 

Speak, I say, 
Speak, What thoti art I know: and what I am 
Thoa knowest — and yet thou knowest not, 

GIORGIO 

Holiest sfre» 
Last night I kept my boat on Tiber— Sire, 
The thing I saw was nothing of my deed — 
It shook me out of sleep to see it — Lord, 
Have mercy: look not so tjpon me. 
[41] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Dog, 

Speak, while thy tongue is thine* 

GIORGIO 

Two men came down 
And peered along the water-side: and two 
Came after — men whose eyes raked all the night. 
Searching the shore — I lay beneath my boat — 
Beside it on the darkling side — and saw. 
Then came a horseman — Sire, his horse was white — 
The moonshine made his mane like dttll wliite fire — 
And on his crupper heavily hung a corpse. 
Arms held from swaying on this side, legs on that, 
I know not which on either — bat the men 
Held fast that held: and hard on Tiber side 
They sw«ng the crttpper toward the water — sharp 
And swift as man may steer a horse — and cattght 
And siting their dead into the stream: and he 
Drifted, and caught the moon across his face 
[42] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

That shone like life against it: and the chief 
Till then sat silent as the moon at watch. 
And then bade htirl stones on the drifting dead 
And sink him oat of sight; and seeing this done. 
Rode thence, and they strode after. 



ALEXANDER 

Man, and thoti — 
Thoa? 

GIORGIO 

Sire, I set my heart again to sleep: 
I turned and slept tinder my boatside. 

ALEXANDER 

Man — 
Dog — devil, if this be truth, and if my fear 
Lie not — how hadst thoa heart to hold thy peace? 
How comes it that the warders of the shore 
[43] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

Knew not of thee, while yet the crime was hot^ 
What crime had made night hell? 



GIORGIO 

A thousand times 
I have seen such sights, hut never till this hour 
Seen him who cared to hear of them. 



ALEXANDER 

Till now. 
Never. He looks in God's mute face and mine, 
And says it. God be good to me I But God 
Will not — or is not. Where is then thy dead. 
Devil, called of God from hell to smite — to scourge- 
Me? 

GIORGIO 

Sire, at hand I left him. 
[44] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



ALEXANDER 

Stir not. Bid 
Thy fellows bring my dead before me. [ExU Officer^ 

Nay, 
Bttt mine it is not yet — it may not be 
Mine — while it may not he, it is not. Child, 
It shall not be thy brother. Pray no prayer. 
Prayer never yet brought profit. Be not pale* 
Fear strikes more deep into the fearful heart 
The wound it heals not. 

Enter Officers <wUh the body of FRANCESCO 

What is he they bring? 
O God! Thou livest! And my child is dead! 

[Falls. 



SCENE IV 
The Vatican 

Alexander and C^sar 

ALEXANDER 
Thoa hast done this dzzd* 



C^SAR 

Thou hast said it. 

ALEXANDER 

Dost tho« think 



To live, and look upon mc? 
[47] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

C-S:SAR 

Some while yet. 

ALEXANDER 
I would there were a God — that he might hear* 

C^SAR 
*Tis pity there should be — for thy sake — ^nonc. 

ALEXANDER 
Wilt thoa slay me? 

C^SAR 
Why? 

ALEXANDER 

Am not I thy sire? 
[48] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

CiESAR 
And Christendom's to boot* 

ALEXANDER 

I pray thee, man, 
Slay me, 

C^SAR 

And then myself? Thou art crazed, but I 
Sane« 

ALEXANDER 
Art thou very flesh and blood? 

C^SAR 

They say. 
Thine. 

[49] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

If the heaven stand still and smite thee not. 
There is no God indeed* 

C^SAR 

Nor thotj nor I 
Know* 

ALEXANDER 

I coiild pray to God that God might be, 
"Were I but mad. Thou say est I am mad: thou liest: 
I do not pray. 

C^SAR 

Most holiest father, no. 
Thy brain is not so sick yet. Thou and God 
Friends? Man, how long would God have let thee 

live — 
Thee? 

[50] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Long enough he hath kept me, to behold 
His face as fire — if his it be — and earth 
As hell — and thee, begotten of my loins, 
Satan. 

CESAR 

The first-frttits of thy fatherhood 
"Were something less than Satan. Man of God, 
Vatjnt not thyself. 

ALEXANDER 

I would I had died in the womb. 

C^SAR 

Thoti shaft do better, dying in Peter's chair: 
Thou shalt die famous. 

[51] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

Ay; no screen from that, 
No shelter, no forgetfttlness on earth. 
"We shall be famed forever. Hell and night, 
Cover me! 

C-S:SAR 

Hast thou heard that prayers are heard? 
Or hast thotJ known earth, for a man's cry's sake. 
Cleave, and devour him? 

ALEXANDER 

I have done this thing. 
Thou hast not done it: thy deed is none of thine: 
Upon my hand, ttpon my head, the blood 
Rests. 

CiESAR 

Wilt thou sleep the worse for this next year? 
[52] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

ALEXANDER 

I will not live a seven days* space beyond 
This. 

CJESAR 

Thoti hast lived thy seven days' space in hell. 
Father: they say thou hast fasted even from sleep. 

ALEXANDER 
Ay- 

CiESAR 

"What they say and what thou sayest I hold 
False. Though thou hast wept as woman, howled 

as wolf. 
Above our dead, thou art hale and whole. And now 
Behoves thee rise again as Christ our God, 
Vicarious Christ, and cast as flesh away 
[53] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

This grief from off thy godhead. I and thotj. 
One, will set hand as never God hath set 
To the empire and the steerage of the world. 
Do thou forget bat him who is dead, and was 
Nought, and bethink thee what a world to wield 
The eternal God hath given into thine hands 
Which daily mould him out of bread, and give 
His kneaded flesh to feed on. Thou and I 
"Will make this rent and ruinous Italy 
One. Ours it shall be, body and soul, and great 
Above all power and glory given of God 
To them that died to set thee where thou art — 
Throned on the dust of Cassar and of Christ, 
Imperial. Earth shall quail again, and rise 
Again the higher because she trembled. Rome 
So bade it be: it was, and shall be. 



ALEXANDER 

Son, 
Art thou my son? 

[54] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

C^SAR 

Whom should thy radiant Rose 
Have found so fit to ingraff with, and bring forth 
So strong a scion as I am? 



ALEXANDER 

By my faith — 
Wherein, I know not — by my soul, if that 
Be — I believe it. God forgot his doom 
When he tho« hast slain drew breath before thee. 



C^SAR 

God 
Must needs forget — if God remember. Now 
This thing thotf hast loved, and I that swept him 

hence 
Held never fit for hate of mine, is dead, 
[55] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

"Wilt thou be one with mc — one God? No less, 
Lord Christ of Rome, thoti wilt be. 

ALEXANDER 

Ay? The Dove? 

CJESAR 

What dove, thottgh lovelier than the swan that lared 
Leda to love of God on earth, might match 
Lucrezia? 

ALEXANDER 

None. Thott art sttbtle of soul and strong. 
I would thotj hadst spared him — cotildst have spared 
him. 

CiESAR 

Sire, 
I woald so too. Our sire, his sire and mine, 
[56] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 

I slew not him for lust of slaying, or hate. 
Or aught less like thy wiser spirit and mine. 

ALEXANDER 
Not for the dove's sake? 

C^SAR 

Not for hate or love. 
Death was the lot God bade him draw, if God 
Be more than what we make him. 

ALEXANDER 

Bread and wine 
Could hardly turn so bitter. Canst thou sleep? 

C^SAR 

Dost thou not? Flesh must sleep to live. Am I 
No son of thine? 

[57] 



THE DUKE OF GANDIA 



ALEXANDER 

I would I saw thine end. 
And mine: and yet I wotild not. 

C^SAR 



Sire, good-night. 
[Exeunt* 



THE END 



l^u* 



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